Popular Pickleball

What do you get when you take an old badminton court, improvised badminton racquets and a perforated plastic ball? Pickleball!

At least that’s what happened back in 1965 when Joel Pritchard, a Washington State congressman along with friend and successful businessman, Bill Bell, brought all that together to come up with a game for their families to play one weekend. After tinkering with net height and crafting different paddles, the game took on a life of its own and soon Pickleball was taking off.

Fast forward some 40 years and you find that pickleball is more popular than ever. Our newest preserves to jump on the pickleball bandwagon are Florida’s Three Flags and Orlandopreserves as both locations now have pickleball courts. And don’t forget that the courts at Oregon’s Seaside preserve are host to a pickleball tournament each September that is sanctioned by the USA Pickleball Association.